By Libya Herald staff.
London, 24 December 2014:
The Ministry of Electricity has launched a campaign to reduce electricity consumption. The high profile campaign was launched at a five star hotel in Tripoli in cooperation with the Scout Movement.
The campaign is aimed at spreading the culture of a more considerate use of power amongst adults but also with a focus on school children to reduce power consumption particularly at the peak hours between 6-10 pm.
The campaign includes the launch of a new cartoon character called in Arabic ‘’Captain Bashh’’ with the catchphrase ‘So the power is not cut’. The Boy Scouts and Girl Guides have been visiting schools in Tripoli launching the campaign with ‘’Captain Bashh’’ literature.
The second main aim of the awareness campaign is to encourage the widespread replacement of standard bulbs with energy-saving bulbs. The Ministry of Electricity has been over the past few months distributing energy-saving bulbs free to consumers who turn up to pay their electricity bills.
Libya has been experiencing, on and off, chronic power cuts ever since the fighting erupted in the February 2011 revolution as various power infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed. After a lull in power cuts recently in Tripoli, power cuts have returned over the last couple of weeks. Benghazi which has seen much more inner-city fighting has suffered many more power cuts in recent months.
The lack of security has also meant that foreign workers and contractors are unable to carryout essential maintenance work within Libya.
It must be pointed out that many Libyans do not bother to pay their electricity bills since the 2011 revolution and that the electricity company (GECOL) does not disconnect consumers’ supply despite that. Consumers fail to pay their bills despite the fact that electricity is heavily subsidised in Libya.
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